secure communication | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Last year, Just after Snowden leaks, the U.S Government warned that NSA surveillance revelations will make harder to track bad guys trying to harm the United States, as disclosures can be helpful to terrorist groups. In response to the NSA revelations, the terrorists at Al-Qaeda have started using strongest encryption techniques in order to bypass the standard cryptographic protections in its various communications, according to the recent report released by the Threat Intelligence  company, Recorded Future . The analysis carried out by the intelligence firm revealed that the Infamous Terrorist Organizations, Al-Qaeda that attacked civilian and military targets in various countries, has switched to new encryption software for the first time in seven years, following the revelations of the US National Security Agency (NSA) by former contractor Edward Snowden . Al-Qaeda is a global militant Islamist and takfiri organization which operates as a network comprising both a

Visiting a website certified with an SSL certificate doesn't mean that the website is not bogus. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protect the web users in two ways, it uses public key encryption to encrypt sensitive information between a user's computer and a website, such as usernames, passwords, or credit card numbers and also verify the identity of websites. Today hackers and cyber criminals are using every tantrum to steal users' credentials and other sensitive data by injecting fake SSL certificates to the bogus websites impersonating Social media, e-commerce, and financial websites as well. DETECTING FAKE DIGITAL CERTIFICATES WIDELY A Group of researchers, Lin-Shung Huang , Alex Ricey , Erling Ellingseny and Collin Jackson , from the Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with Facebook have analyzed [ PDF ] more than 3 million SSL connections and found strong evidence that at least 6;845 (0:2%) of them were in fact tampered with forged certificates i.e. self-signed di

Imagine a world where the software that powers your favorite apps, secures your online transactions, and keeps your digital life could be outsmarted and taken over by a cleverly disguised piece of code. This isn't a plot from the latest cyber-thriller; it's actually been a reality for years now. How this will change – in a positive or negative direction – as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on a larger role in software development is one of the big uncertainties related to this brave new world. In an era where AI promises to revolutionize how we live and work, the conversation about its security implications cannot be sidelined. As we increasingly rely on AI for tasks ranging from mundane to mission-critical, the question is no longer just, "Can AI  boost cybersecurity ?" (sure!), but also "Can AI  be hacked? " (yes!), "Can one use AI  to hack? " (of course!), and "Will AI  produce secure software ?" (well…). This thought leadership article is about the latter. Cydrill  (a

Looking for a Secure Smartphone? World's biggest Aerospace company - Boeing is finally close to the launch of its high-security Android Smartphone, called " Boeing Black (H8V-BLK1) ", primarily designed for secure communication between Governmental agencies and their contractors. Encrypted email, Secure Instant Messaging and Other privacy services and tools are booming in the wake of the National Security Agency's recently revealed surveillance programs. Encryption isn't meant to keep hackers out, but when it's designed and implemented correctly, it alters the way messages look. Boeing is the company which is already providing secure communications for US Government officials, including the president. Don't mess with it, It can  Self-Destruct:  Boeing Black Smartphone can Self-Destruct  if it is tampered with, destroying all the data on it. The device is delivered in complete sealed form, any attempt to open the seal of the device will destruct the operati

Earlier this year encrypted communications firm Silent Circle and Spanish Smartphone maker Geeksphone  announced a  privacy-focused  encrypted  S martphone  called ' Blackphone ' and today the company has revealed it as ' Mobile World Congress ' in Barcelona. The Blackphone titled as, " world's first Smartphone which places privacy and control directly in the hands of its users, " has a fully customized version  customized version of Android called PrivatOS   and pre-installed with lots of  privacy-enabled applications, is now available for pre-order for about $629 . Silent Circle was co-founded by a respected Cryptographer  Phil Zimmermann,  best known as the creator of  Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) , which is a widely used email encryption software. The Blackphone handsets main focus is keeping all of your data secure, and to stop government agencies snooping on your communications. Blackphone will come with a set of application developed by Silent Circle , incl

Viber was blocked last week for non-compliance by The government of Saudi Arabia and Now they may move to block Skype and WhatsApp in the coming weeks, if the U.S. based messaging provider fails to comply with requirements set by the country's telecom regulator. CITC confirmed that they could take the nasty step even before the holy month of Ramadan that commences on 9 July. " We have been communicating with WhatsApp and other similar communication platforms to get them to cooperate and comply with the Saudi telecom providers, however, nothing has come of this communication yet ." The main issue seems to be that such channels bypass Saudi's communications monitoring capabilities and consequently do not conform to local regulations.  Saudi Arabia's three main operators Saudi Telecom, Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Zain Saudi had been asked to tell CITC if they were able to monitor or block such applications. " We gave them a week to comply and have been co

Early 2012 ESET company a mysterious malware, dubbed the Avatar rootkit (Win32/Rootkit.Avatar), advertised in the underground forums by Russian cyber crime . " We present you here previously announced product. In connection with work on other projects, we moved the release date for the public from May to February 2013th 2012go.Now nuclear rootkit AVATAR is available for rental. " Despite the malware was described months ago it was not found and published until now, in March ESET researchers detected two droppers with different C&C servers and having different compilation time stamps as showed in the following pictures: The Avatar rootkit appears very sophisticated, it uses two different infection techniques, the first in the dropper so as to bypass detections by HIPS, and the second one in the rootkit driver to allow the malware to be alive after system reboot, the instance detected works only on x86 systems. The 2 level dropper for Avatar rootkit works in conjunct

Privacy conscious phone users are being offered a new app that claims to be the world's first totally secure messaging service. A London-based iPhone messaging app claims to be unhackable and is offering reward to anyone who can intercept a message sent by it.  Redact believes that messages sent via the app are completely secure, and to prove it a reward of £10,000 has been offered. The application creates a secure and encrypted peer-to-peer network between two iPhones, with messages sent directly from one phone to another and not through the company's servers.  The company has already offered its Secure Messenger service for free to MPs and submitted the technology to CESG, the Government's National Technical Authority for Information Assurance, which provides advice on the security of communications and electronic data. With Redact there are no user names, phone numbers or email addresses. Instead, new users are automatically assigned a unique PIN, simi

A Google developer helps Apple to fixed a security flaw in its application store that for years has allowed attackers to steal passwords and install unwanted or extremely expensive applications. Security loophole allowed attacker to hijack the connection, because Apple neglected to use encryption when an iPhone or other mobile device tries to connect to the App Store. Researcher Elie Bursztein revealed on his blog that he had alerted Apple of numerous security issues last July but that Apple had only turned on HTTPS for the App Store last week. An attacker only needs to be on the same network as the person who is using the App Store. From there, they can intercept the communications between the device and the App Store and insert their own commands. The malicious user could take advantage of the unsecure connection to carry out a number of different attacks i.e steal a password, force someone to purchase an app by swapping it with a different app that the buyer actually intende

Paul F Renda give an overview that, What and how new long distance and short distance Dead drop techniques are used by National Security Agency for secure communications. What is a dead drop? It is methods that spies use or have used to communicate with associates who have information for them. The dead drop allows them to exchange information without having actual physical contact with each other. The person leaving the information can leave it under a rock or a can or bush. A special type of empty spikes that can be dropped into holes has also been used drop information. The person leaving the information also leaves some kind of signal the drop was made. The signal could be a chalk marks on a tree or pavement. Someone views the signal and retrieves information. Some more unusual dead drops have used dead animals like rabbits, rats and large birds to hide the information. These have been used by both the CIA and KGB. The one problem with this type of dead drop is that other